Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Welcome to Shack Coffee.

In my earlier post I had written about the genesis of Shack Design Co. Weird it may sound, but it was coffee which had founded Shack Design Co. I had decided to run a Café. Indian Coffee Board had organized a coffee meet in Bangalore. By sheer luck I had bumped into founders (Aharnish and Manideep) of Finca Coffee at Indian Specialty Coffee exposition. It was this chanced meeting , that made me believe that I could open the cafe. I had met Aharnish and Manideep in February, 2007 and till date I look up to them as mentors for things related to coffee, business and life. I will always be grateful to them for their guidance. It’s another matter that I could not start the café then , as I lacked resources and the knowhow.

I also happened to bump into someone ( C) ,who went on to become love of my life and stood by me during this eventful journey. I am grateful to her for posing faith in me and loving me so much. She nursed me back to sanity and helped me discover myself all over again. I can never repay her for her kindness and generosity.

Three years had passed after I had decided to establish a café. Finally an opportunity had knocked the door . Ajay Jain, an acclaimed photographer and a serial entrepreneur gave me the chance to run a coffee bar in his travel café, where I would set up a manual bar. At Kunzum we used to serve coffee by preparing them in French Presses and pour over cones. People liked our handcrafted coffees as it was made from freshly roasted coffee beans.

However, luck had something else in store. Ajay wanted to run the place in a particular fashion , which I did not agree with. Therefore I moved out and came back to Shack. My first attempt to run a café did not go very far. As a result I was disappointed and sad.

As they say every curse is intertwined with a blessing. Taking care of Coffee Bar at Kunzum taught me that any job in this world requires a lot of dedication and focus and with that approach the very job becomes its own reward. I had always wanted to run a café, which I finally did in my own little weird manner. With these learnings I applied myself to running Shack and growing it steadily.

We moved into a new office and leased more space as we anticipated growth. As we grew we found that we would not need all the extra space we had leased. Therefore we decided that we will also run a small café within our office. We will not advertise about it, but it will a functional café where anyone can come and savour the best cup of coffee. I will keep everyone posted as we move along ( you can also follow www.shackcoffee.com ).

In the meanwhile let me welcome you to Shack, a coffee house and an agency. Please feel free to drop in for a cup of coffee.